Thread by @SethAbramson

(LIVE THREAD) I'm going to live-tweet the Trump rally so you don't have to watch it. I hope you'll retweet this thread for anyone you think may be interested. The brief thread below contains play-by-play of the early parts of the Trump rally in Dalton, GA.

https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1346253964967342080?s=20

1/ Don Jr. is now frisbeeing cheap Chinese MAGA hats into the crowd as he prepares to speak.

2/ Don starts by implying Biden is senile and "doesn't know where he is." He then moves to Hunter Biden. He indicates Biden is so senile there's no way he could've won. Moves on to "Russia hoax," Hunter "taking money from the Chinese communist party." Just all the greatest hits.

3/ I mention this insane rhetoric because Don Jr. is literally re-litigating the general election—60 days after it ended. This is all the rhetoric he used pre-election.

4/ Jr. urges the voters to "do to the Democrats" what the Democrats "did to my father for 4 years." It's hilarious because of how many times his dad said to America, "what happened to me must never be allowed to happen again." Now the Trumps' call to do the same thing is public.

5/ Jr. says "the dumbest statement made in the history of politics" is that a GA voter might stay home because of Democratic corruption. Note: his dad, within the last 72 hours, was noting—neutrally to approvingly—that Georgia voters would do this. Trumpist rhetoric...incoherent.

6/ Important side note: Don Jr. has become a much better speaker—and watching him tonight really brings home that he will be running for some office within the next 4 years. It is very, very hard not to see him running for office. (Montana governor has apparently been discussed.)

7/ He just referred to his girlfriend as "the Puerto Rican pit bull" and called her "baby" from the stage. I can easily envision the major media report below being true: mercurynews.com/2020/11/09/kim…

8/ I'm not going to repeat Don Jr.'s slanders against Ossoff and Warnock. They're vile and—all of them—debunked disinformation.

9/ Don Jr. just exclaimed "Holy shit!" from the stage—into the microphone, as part of his speech. Not something you normally hear in a political speech. He is ranting about Nancy Pelosi and... her hair? I don't know what any of this has to do with Trump, Perdue, or Loeffler.

10/ Don Jr. now says the China can "exert control" over America via blackmail material in Beijing's possession. No idea what or who he's talking about—or why. Again unclear what this has to do with Perdue or Loeffler, though he keeps bringing his rhetoric back to the U.S. Senate.

11/ Don Jr. just imitated Jim Carrey from the 1994 film "Dumb and Dumber."

12/ Don Jr. calls the Democratic Party a "Marxist, socialist, communist party." No one in the crowd knows what any of these words mean but it gets them to chant, "USA! USA! USA!" which was the only point of the rhetoric, anyway.

13/ Don Jr. is now talking about... uh... *Helen Keller*... getting cancelled. I don't know what he refers to here. Does anyone?

14/ Some boilerplate GOP red meat now. Not worth tweeting. SCOTUS, D.C. statehood, Puerto Rico, the whole typical kaboodle.

15/ Virtually no focus on Trump in Jr.'s speech except to say that his presidency was amazing in every respect. Clear focus on the Senate, nothing about the presidential election. I expect this is to make some additional room for his dad to focus only on himself in a few minutes.

16/ All of the rhetoric in this Trump rally is militaristic: "the battle lines have been drawn," "hold the line," and so on. The enemy is consistently "socialism," but the speakers make no distinction between socialism and "communism"—nor does anyone in the crowd appear to do so.

17/ They're playing a pretty typical hype video now. Usual attacks on media, Schumer, Pelosi, and the "mob" (this refers to Blacks). This stuff is so boring I'm amazed that Trumpists still find it entertaining. The Trump team *sleepwalks* through creating videos like this by now.

18/ As we await Trump, I want to note how seamlessly the GOP has created its new racist dog-whistle: "the mob." It mostly means Black activists, but because it *technically* also includes the antifa movement, which is seen as white, they believe they've skirted claims of racism.

19/ Delay now, as the crowd awaits Trump.

20/ As usual, Team Trump is playing the most ironic hype song ever attached to a ["billionaire"] political candidate in the history of US politics: "Fortunate Son." It's a confirmation that no one at this rally is listening to any words spoken or understanding anything they hear.

21/ The set-up of the stage in Dalton is a *great* metaphor: two giant American flags with a large space between them—a space set against the black of night behind it so that it looks like a bottomless Abyss. When Trump arrives, he will enter through that Abyss. To wild applause.

22/ From what I can see on the feed, about 10% to 15% of rallygoers are wearing masks. But most of the masks are in the area immediately behind Trump—so it might be misleading (for Trump's sake and TV's sake, they want masks there). Fewer masks elsewhere in the crowd, it appears.

23/ I have no idea why this rally couldn't be planned so that there isn't a 50-minute window in the middle of it in which Georgians are standing arm-to-arm in the middle of a killer pandemic. But everyone here lives—and dies—on Trump's schedule and according to his whim, I guess.

24/ Whatever you think about Billy Joel he deserves much better than to have "Piano Man" be played during the intermission of this racist, xenophobic, disinformation-riddled super-spreader event

25/ Update on earlier tweet: it's entirely possible that they will park Air Force One in the midst of the "Abyss" (see previous picture) so that Trump enters the rally against the backdrop of a plane he will have absolutely no access to whatsoever beginning in just 16 days

26/ Team Trump is now playing Bowie and I earnestly wish his ghost would strike the speakers with lightning bolts and destroy them all

No one here deserves Bowie

27/ Now they're playing "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" which somehow seems appropriate

28/ Trump is landing now, as Elton John sings about his future life being "beyond the Yellow Brick Road"

29/ Yeah the crowd in front of the stage (which we can see now on the livestream) is almost entirely unmasked

30/ Boy they really raided a 50 year-old's midlife-crisis refurbished Pontiac Firebird, as they're playing Phil Collins now

31/ Motorcade arriving now, Trump will indeed emerge from the endless black between two giant American flags

32/ Perdue now speaking via video with his usual absence of charisma, apparently he was dared to say "socialism" every four words

33/ Did not see the imminent arrival of Trump being heralded by Laura Branigan's "Gloria" but apparently this is what we're doing

34/ Now we're back to "Fortunate Son"—a song which, if it could be made flesh, would spit in Trump's face for the rest of eternity

35/ I guess Marine One is landing now, and the prior plane was the advance team or Loeffler or something (it was nevertheless waved at frantically by the crowd like it was Trump himself, hovering in the sky with a chintzy gold-gilded halo over his preposterously coiffed head)

36/ OMG they're actually playing Queen's "We Are the Champions" to herald the appearance of a man who lost the 2020 election by 7+ million votes

Apparently, contra the song, there *is* "time for losers"

37/ All this pageantry for a slovenly two-bit brigand

38/ Okay now they're playing "Macho Man" and I just can't good Lord have some self-awareness

39/ Here comes the old fraud, to the strains of whatever that stupid insipid country song is I'm not going to look the name up who cares

40/ It's a song about soldiers by someone who I'm guessing never served and never would

Yep, it's Lee Greenwood, a former blackjack dealer at a casino

41/ Trump starts with "there's no way we lost Georgia, it's a rigged election, you'll see what's going to happen"

42/ "I've had two elections, I won both, I actually did better on the second one" 😂🤣😅

43/ "I think I'm going to win them all" he says, referring to eight states he definitely lost in November

He says Georgia voters must "swamp the polls" (pun clearly not intended) because the system is so "crooked"

44/ He introduces Loeffler, all the crowd can respond with is "Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!"

They care about Loeffler not at all

45/ He promises some big things are about to be "revealed," which people forget is something he's been saying since he was a birther years and years ago

Snake-oil: SOLD

46/ "They [the Democrats] are not taking this White House, we're going to fight like hell"

He implies that in most elections—and he seems to include Loeffler's in this?—losing is not a big deal, but if *he* loses the White House "it's not acceptable"

47/ Trump calls Democrats "communists," says "They hate our country" blah blah blah

On Pence: "I hope Mike Pence comes through for us, I have to tell you... he's a great guy. Of course, if he doesn't come through, I won't like him quite as much."

48/ Typical blather: "I won in a landslide," mentioning all sorts of obscure records no one cares about and that mean nothing and Trump struggles to accurately recite

49/ Trump now falsely accuses Democrats of manufacturing votes in the House races still being counted

50/ "The Democrats are trying to steal the White House, they're trying to steal the Senate, you can't let it happen"

"I beat Ossoff once, running against a very fine woman, Karen" (he clearly can't remember her last name)

51/ "Your governor and your secretary of state are petrified of Stacey Abrams...what they've done to your state, these two people...they say they're Republicans, I really don't think so"

Way off Perdue and Loeffler now, 100% on his own jaunt

52/ Oh god memory lane now with the Kemp-Abrams election from years ago who cares this is so tiresome

53/ Ivanka, Meadows, Don Jr., and Kimberly Guilfoyle are in the background talking and laughing not listening to Trump at all and why would they, they've heard all these lies 1,000 times before

54/ [boilerplate political rhetoric about Democrats and about his "accomplishments," Perdue and Loeffler again forgotten as irrelevant]

55/ "The Democrats will surrender the entire U.S. manufacturing industry to China"

"I've been involved in the two greatest scams in American history" is a quote someone should rip and do something with because of course it's true but he was referring to the Russia hoax et cetera

56/ He's off-teleprompter and this is legit rambling, I can't follow what he's saying

57/ "They're putting MS-13 gang members straight into your children's schools"

Some of this false rhetoric is so bizarre and facially implausible but the crowd—sort of—loves it but simultaneously seems a little bored, as he's not providing any actual applause lines but rambling

58/ He just simultaneously took credit for destroying Obamacare and... for Obamacare

59/ "I'm not happy with the Supreme Court, they're not stepping up to the plate." He says "if you're president and you get defrauded out of an election, you get to file suit..." Way off-script now, he's talking a lot about "standing" and other things the crowd doesn't understand

60/ He says Biden will have "24, 25, 26 justices on the Supreme Court".... this is all so soul-crushingly deceitful, and we must remember that his goal is to *break the human spirit* with such a mountain of lies you can't even remember what the truth sounds like or *feels* like

61/ He's really low energy except when he's off-script speaking about the 2020 election but this is par for the course

62/ He reassures the crowd that he actually does want Loeffler and Perdue to win and when you have to do that on some level you've already lost

63/ "I don't concede...I think we're going to win"

64/ He just told a quick "Sir Story" involving Perdue

65/ Trump is stringing together 50+ focus-group-tested buzzwords and phrases that apparently appeal to this crowd not going to summarize them

66/ This is a flaccid, terrible, boring, listless, meandering ramble... his heart isn't in it, he seems defeated to me

67/ "They threw military ballots with my name on it into the river" I mean seriously if you are stupid enough to believe this

68/ Trump talks about the vaccine like he was literally the one holding the beakers

69/ "[Warnock] does not share your values"—classic racist dog-whistling and "othering" of a Black man in the South

70/ Loeffler is going to speak so I'm going to go cut my toenails

71/ Loeffler is speaking but all I can hear on my livestream is a low humming sound, occasional beeps, and the sound of a distant cash register

Trump allotted her about 130 seconds, and it was way too much

72/ Trump hilariously says to Loeffler "I'm glad I invited you up" in response to her saying she would oppose certification of Biden's win, implying it was the only reason he wanted her there or speaking

73/ Trump is inviting Marjorie Greene up to the stage and is WAY MORE EXCITED about her than he was about Loeffler, apparently she is going to speak now and for as long or longer than Loeffler did

This is incredible, she is a literal deranged lunatic

74/ I can't stop laughing Loeffler was hustled off the stage SO FAST and now Marjorie Greene is going to be up there spouting insanity for like FOREVER

75/ Wow does Trump like Greene, you can really tell that unlike Loeffler he gives a **** about her

76/ He points out Sen. Mike Lee in the crowd so he can say (admittedly, with a smile) that he is angry at him (Lee has said he won't oppose final certification of Biden's win)

77/ "For whatever reason, bikers like me. I don't know why the bikers like me."

{*raises hand*} I know why.

78/ Trump on Ivanka: "She doesn't really like the concept of running for office. 'What do I need it for, dad'?" Implication is that he wants her to run for the Senate against Rubio as widely reported and she is unsure. He calls her up.

79/ I'll be honest and say that both Ivanka and Don Jr. are *very* talented fraudsters, and if they go into politics I think they will be incredibly dangerous. If Trump doesn't run in 2024, he will make sure *one* of them gets into national politics at a high level. My two cents.

80/ Back to a 2020 election rant now. This could be a while.

81/ Booing for Fox News. Trump says he "had" to watch it because he didn't have other channels. Incredible to see how the Fox News rhetoric has changed in the last 18 months. I'm sure it has nothing to do with his plans to start a competing media empire post-presidency. Nothing.

82/ Calls Raffensperger "wacky" and moves into the "made-up Georgia election numbers" portion of his presentation.

83/ Every piece of data he's giving was explicitly explained to him as false within the last 72 hours.

On an audiotape much of the country has heard.

84/ Somewhere Gabriel Sterling just destroyed a throw pillow

85/ Loeffler and Perdue are *so* in the rear-view mirror at this point, we're 10+ minutes into 2020 election grievances

86/ I'm sure the Georgia Trumpists waited outside shoulder-to-shoulder to hear this old fraud rant about "consent decrees"

*So* entertaining

87/ I kid you not, there's a "LOCK HER UP" chant about Hillary Clinton happening now, and it's the most animated the crowd has been during the entire speech (seriously)

88/ He's now talking about "human dropboxes" and "ballot harvesting" in Wisconsin during the presidential election...

...in a speech about the 2021 Georgia runoff

89/ We can't even *see* the "rails" at this point

90/ This is a conversation you normally would have alone in front of a mirror, delivered publicly to thousands of people

91/ The crowd is completely disinterested and disengaged at this point, virtually silent

92/ He said "Dominion" and the crowd briefly showed life by booing

93/ I don't know what the crowd wants from the guy I mean he's having a breakdown in public and they seem dissatisfied and aloof

94/ This is so boring my God

95/ I think this speech may actually be sucking some of the life force from all who hear it, like if this speech turns out to measurably shorten the life of every person who attended it by 17.3 days I wouldn't be surprised

96/ I don't even know what he's talking about anymore...

My mind is drifting...

Do you guys prefer pie or cake? I prefer cake, personally.

97/ I think he's talking about the Most Admired Man poll. But I also feel like my wife and I shouldn't have left the gas in our snowblower at the end of last winter. We have to remember to let the snowblower run at the end of the season this year—I feel so stupid over this error.

98/ I briefly drifted back to the speech and heard only, "Anything connected to the internet—that's not good." I'm trying to remember the first time I ever went on the internet. 1991? 1992? I'm not sure. Sometime around then I think. It was probably AOL Online. Summertime, maybe.

99/ How many constellations can you all identify? I used to be able to identify a bunch. Now I think I can only spot Orion. I don't even know if I can always find the Little Dipper and Big Dipper anymore.

I'm thirsty. Fortunately we have some pomegranate soda my wife bought.

100/ I guess I'm going to stop? Yes. I will. He's still talking, but I think in some way he'll always be talking? Maybe he always *has* been talking? Maybe it's like when you put a hat on a dog and the dog is like, "Well, that's life now."

He just told another "Sir Story." /end